Knicks Morning News (2014.04.27)

Steve Kerr sounds serious about getting into coaching, and Phil Jackson isn’t the only sideline legend he’s been leaning on for advice about the profession. Kerr’s agent, former Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum, said Saturday that he personally has not spoken with Jackson — and he wouldn’t divulge whether the TNT analyst already has met with his former Bulls coach since Mike Woodson was fired on Monday.

Reggie Jackson came off the bench and outscored teammates Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook by himself. The Oklahoma City Thunder needed every point from their top reserve to win yet another overtime game against Memphis.

51 comments on “Knicks Morning News (2014.04.27)”

I just read a book called “The Human Stain” by Phillip Roth. In it, a college professor is run out of his job over a misunderstanding over race. In the book, the character is completely innocent. In fact (in the story) It turns out that he’s a black man who has been passing for white for fifty years.

I’m not saying that the Donald Sterling situation is any way analogous, I have no idea, but I certainly don’t trust the media, or gossip web sites. Shawn Livingston’s reaction might be the most telling. Just the fact that he wasn’t surprised.

I guess my mind is just blown that there could be an overtly racist NBA owner. I mean it’s 2014. People obviously are still biased in all kinds of ways, and make insensitive remarks based on ignorance all the time, but this? It’s so bad as to almost strain credulity.

I guess the fact is, we’re living through a dark time. Fossil fuels on the rebound, denials of climate science, the supreme court allowing the unfettered takeover of elections by a monied elite, the end of affirmative action, 85 billionaires controlling 1/2 of the worlds wealth, and now, apparently, a light shone into the psyche of one of our industrial captains. Not a pretty sight. Goodness. Hard to believe. I hope it’s not true but I’m very frightened it is.

What do you mean by “overtly” racist? These comments were made in private to his gf, who recorded him. Having said that, he has also settled a case where the govt brought action that he was discriminating against blacks and Latinos in real estate dealings. Racists are a bane on our society, powerful, wealthy racists do real harm. If this recording is legitimate it is really horrible for the image of the league. Professional sports are one of the few billion dollar+ enterprises where the majority of the “workers” are minorities. To have one of the owners in this enterprise represent such ignorant comments is outrageous in so many ways. Curious to see what the NBA does on this one. Silver giving press conference at 8pm tonight.

I believe Sterling deserves due process, but nobody is going to cry any tears if he ends up selling the team over this, including him, who stands to earn millions on the sale. The problem with all of this is that it’s not really that surprising to anybody that this came from Sterling. Forget about being a possible racist and a possible slumlord, the players on his team kicked in to par for prostate cancer treatments for an assistant coach when the team said it wouldn’t pay for them. As sucky as Dolan is, he didn’t heckle his own players from courtside.

In better news, it looks like another good day of NBA action. Wizards are looking pretty good and I think they will give Atlanta or Indiana problems.

It’s nice to see Donald Sterling getting raked over the coals today. What is happening to him today is the comeuppance he has had coming to him for a long, long time. Sure, due process and all, but Sterling is well known to be a true piece of shit.

James Dolan is a doofus and he is embarrassing, but Sterling is on a whole other level. This is a truly awful human being we’re talking about here.

Note to GMs: take a chance on Marquette players and shop Utah’s FAs. The Utah 3 in ATL and Matthews. I know the knicks have former players sprinkled in this playoffs too. I guess every team has them.

One thing Reggie said caught my ear: He said Harden must be mad(at them posting up Howard) because he let Batum drive right by him during one play late in the 4th.

I was like he must have been mad the whole series because has been doing that since game 1. Harden’s defense is really cringe worthy. He’ll get some deflections because of his length but other than that its a nightmare.

It’s super nuts just how close these two teams are. Simmons tweeted it and I agree – couldn’t you just watch these two teams play constantly? They’re both really good teams and they’re both so close to each other in quality that it is amazing to watch. I mean, for crying out loud, three overtime games out of four games played!!

Can we agree that, as presently coached and motivated, Howard and Harden are not a good fit? Portland is playing really well, but come on, Houston has the two best players in the series (not by much, but Harden is a smidge better than Lillard – as of now – and Howard should be a tier better than Aldridge) and they don’t know how to play off each other’s strengths. Watch again the bucket by Howard to tie the game in regulation. Apart from the fact that this is how it should be done, their body language after the made bucket is truly awful. No chemistry there, and it’s not really a piece of news, since Howard is involved.

Are we witnessing another case of Howarditis? Or is it more on McHale (who, again, I like very much as a person – even more after the loss of his daughter last year – but is not the right coach for this roster)?

I was a fan of Harden but after his uneven play in these playoffs I don’t know what to think anymore. Maybe Harden was better in OKC if paired with Durant, and Westbrook would have thrived in Houston (not sure about that; still, Harden-Durant seems a much better pairing than Westbrook-Durant, for all parties involved).

Well, they were never a good fit, per se, but it was more a matter of them both being so talented that the team was still better off pairing them with each other than not adding Howard at all.

Harden and Durant would definitely work better than Westbrook and Durant, but I dunno about Westbrook and Howard. I think you’d have the same basic problem you have now.

I still think Howard probably made the right decision, though, as Kobe couldn’t even play this season. And where else was he going? I guess Dallas looks like the best bet in retrospect, as at least he’d have a great coach. Then again, SVG was a good coach and Howard was a dick to him.

Yes, Howard and Houston probably made the right decision. I’m just wondering why he seems to be a dick everywhere he goes, what with all his talent and his basketball chops (he’s still a great player, and is smart enough to know his limits), since his behavior limits greatly the chances of success of his own team. I’m really in awe of all the times the mindset of a person is the only thing that stands between that person and success for himself and people surrounding him. I guess that’s only human.

PS: Westbrook and Howard would have worked the same way offensively, that’s for sure. But the level of atrociousness Harden is displaying on defense is unrivaled, even for the jumpy habits of Westbrook.

I wouldn’t say that Howard is overrated as a player. He’s certainly a better center than anyone in the league, save for Noah and M. Gasol (both much more well-rounded but still not as dominant when locked in), so he’s between #1 and #3 in the list of 2014 NBA centers.

I would say, however, that he is overrated as a teammate, as a cog, as a part of a five-man unit (or of a 15 people roster, or of a 50 people organization, counting coaches, GM, directors, scouts, etc.). As I wrote before, his behavior represents a major obstacle for his teams. In that sense, Asik is a better teammate, and probably Houston would be better served with Aldridge-Asik than Howard-Jones or Howard-Parsons or Howard-Motiejunas or whatever.

I will not stop saying this: eye-test is not everything (see: countless inefficient wing scorers), analytics are not everything (see: RPM, which puts in the first 10 positions Nick Collison and Channing Frye, good role players and nice teammates by all accounts, but not building blocks). Body language is sooo important in evaluating a player.

I only know one thing about these playoffs – the NBA has to start scheduling earlier games especially on the weekend. These Western conference games are awesome, and I have to be up at 6 every morning so can’t watch any of them. We should go to China’s system and just have 1 time zone for the whole country. At least for playoff season.

Ha! I know just what you mean, Frank. Heck, forget just staying up late, there’s not enough time to watch all of these great games! I had things to do Saturday and Sunday and while I didn’t miss much with the early Sunday games, I did miss out on a lot on Saturday!

“I would say, however, that he is overrated as a teammate, as a cog, as a part of a five-man unit (or of a 15 people roster, or of a 50 people organization, counting coaches, GM, directors, scouts, etc.). As I wrote before, his behavior represents a major obstacle for his teams. In that sense, Asik is a better teammate,”
I guess Asik is a better teammate…if you ignore his public complaining about playing time, his public trade demands, the fact that his coach felt the need to bench him earlier this year for his bad attitude, etc… yeah, he’s a real team-first kinda guy.
Re: whether Howard is over-rated — when people were calling him the second or third best player in the league, I thought that he was absurdly over-rated, since I never saw him play a game in which I thought that he was the best player on the court in the fourth quarter. If people are now saying that he is the third best center in the league and maybe the 25th best player, I think that he is properly rated. I still think that the video of him putting his arm around SVG and saying, “Where are these reporters getting the idea that I want you fired?” right after Van Gundy had just told reporters that Howard was trying to get him fired was one of the funniest sports clips I’ve ever seen.

The moment the Knicks were eliminated I said to myself that at least I get to focus on real life again…but damn those playoffs are dragging me back in to the hole. Super games…thank god for endless play reviewing, century long timeouts, blown calls by refs…if not for that the games would be to good to be true.
And Frank…for us Europeans those early games are pure gold.

Meanwhile — all these reports about the meeting of Kerr and Phil — I’m loving it. Not just the fact that they’re meeting, but that by all appearances, these are 2 adults having a long conversation about organizational and basketball philosophy. Kerr isn’t someone (yet) who is just jumping at the chance to get into coaching — he’s making sure he understands what he’s getting into. And conversely, Phil is probably doing the same thing. This has the feeling of an actual methodical process, which is what it should be.

Obviously we know nothing about Kerr as a basketball coach, but still – I’m 100% on board with him. He’s obviously a smart guy, worked his butt off as a player with limited athletic ability, believes in analytics (speaks at and attends the Sloan Conference every year I think), and has played for nearly a decade under the two best coaches in the last few decades. Hopefully Phil can close the deal.

Exactly! Lowry is a wonderful player right now, but I wouldn’t want to add him unless I had a strong foundation or he came for the right price (20mln-3yrs). Too volatile, too ornery. I didn’t mean you have to overvalue body language. I meant that it has to be taken into account: I guess you shouldn’t think of a player as a superstar (or even a key player) if his body language is bad; otherwise, you could find yourself stuck in a relationship that could go awry in a very short time. In my previous comment, I was just trying to say that a true superstar is a guy who never quits on the game if things don’t go well for him, and that you can’t add people just on talent or numbers alone. In that sense, adding Howard was a risk (that had to be taken: imagine yourself to be a single man in his late 20s – early 30s and having a chance to date regularly Emily Ratajkowski, even if you knew she could be crazy, a possible cheater, and always self-centered. Would you avoid her before even trying? Not by chance. Should you stick with her to the bitter end just because she’s smoking hot although she’s ruining your life? Not by chance) only because we know too well his habits. Sadly, he confirmed them all.

@44

Asik is by all accounts a better teammate. Not a team-first guy, just a better teammate. His public demands never hurt anyone apart from his chances to really get traded (because his trade value got deflated by being publicly sold), and, well, on the floor he always gave his best. Yes I know, he refused to play one time and had to be benched and DNPed. Look, even Pippen once made a giant mistake when Phil designed a play for Kukoc and he didn’t get back on the floor; being an asshole once it’s human, it’s being an asshole very often that is childish.

@ 45

You told’em, boy. From a fellow European, there’s nothing better than a game scheduled on early times!

I think Kerr only takes Knick job because he realizes knowledge of the triangle is his key differentiator. If he’s successful implementing it here, he would have great value in the future; there really are no decent coaches who are familiar enough with the system to make it work. Pacers, for example, would have been an ideal candidate where everybody would have been involved not just on defense but offense as well. And Jax being in charge will give him every opportunity to make it work here. BTW the only reason Kerr has not been offered the job yet is so that he could continue in his current position (which pays well) for a couple more weeks.